The present invention relates to writing pens, and more particularly, to ball-point pens.
Pens come in a variety of shapes, sizes and types. There are felt tip pens, ball-point pens and fountain pens, all of which employ an ink reservoir mated to a writing tip of some sort and a body or housing for containing the writing tip and reservoir. For ball-point pens, the writing tip includes a ball contained in a metallic or plastic tube to form a ball-point. In use, the ball-point is rubbed against the surface of the paper and ink flowing from the reservoir to the ball-point is neatly deposited on the surface of the paper.
In order to maximize the free flow of ink onto paper, the body of the pen should be held so that the ball point is held as close to a vertical position from the surface of the paper as possible. If the ball-point is not held at such a steep angle, the ball-point lays down less ink on the paper.
Traditionally, pens have had straight tubular housings or bodies for containing the ink reservoir, which have an apertured writing end through which the writing tip projects in order to make contact with the paper. The straight tubular nature of traditional pen bodies is adequate for retaining the writing tip and ink reservoir but does not maximize the comfortable use of the pen.
In the past, attempts were made to improve the comfortable use of pens by modifying the housing with ridges or bulges located near the writing tip in order to better conform the housing of the pen to the grip of the user. Other attempts included the use of customized or modified writing tips in order to improve the position of the writing tip in relation to the grip of the user. H. R. Fehling et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,106,190 discloses a ball-point pen having a ball held within an angled metal tube. This angled tube permits the ball-point to be held at the axis of the housing and at an angle closer to the verticle when the body of the pen is held in a comfortable writing position. Although a custom writing unit having a angled ball-point makes for better contact of ball-point with paper, the comfortable grip of the Fehling pen as with previous pens is limited by the straight stick-like shape of the body.